The Book of Revelation - Session 3 of 24 - A Remastered Commentary by Chuck Missler

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well father we thank you for who you are

we thank you that you've allowed us this

privilege

of gathering together in the name of our

lord and savior jesus christ and

to open your word to us we pray father

that you would open your word to us and

more importantly open us to your word

that in all these things we might be

whole jesus christ that we might grow in

grace in the knowledge of him

and and

doing and in all this become more

fruitful stewards

of the incredible

abundance you've allowed each of us

as we commit our this evening and

ourselves into your hands in the name of

yeshua

our lord and savior jesus christ amen

well we are in session three

of the our study of the book of

revelation

chapters uh two and three of course

are the seven churches and so we're

going to focus on each one specifically

but just a few background items for to

get warmed up here

notice first of all it's singular the

word revelation

the greek word apocalypse means the

unveiling

it's not a collection of visions it's an

unveiling of a person the person of

jesus christ it's singular

it's the consummation of all things

everything started in genesis is tied

off in

revelation and it's the only book of the

bible that has the audacity to say read

me i'm special

no other book of the bible to my

knowledge promises a special blessing to

the reader

of it

lots of admonitions to read the bible

collectively the word of god only one

book

has the

what the jews might call hutzpah

to say read me i'm special and we're

going to claim that blessing tonight

the the book contains 404 verses but the

important thing to understand is that

those 404 verses

contain over 800 allusions to the old

testament

so if it sounds strange to your ears

it's because

we all haven't done enough homework in

the old testament and we'll provide an

actual catalog of all those illusions as

part of the notes that will accompany

the study and of course this presents

this presents the climax of god's plan

for mankind

now notice the first couple of verses

the revelation of jesus christ which god

gave unto whom

unto him

that shocks many people they read that

they don't they're not paying attention

the revelation of jesus christ which god

gave unto him to jesus christ to why to

show unto his servants things which must

suddenly come to pass shortly the word

in the greek is toxic

it

means very rapidly once they start

i think the closest english word is

really suddenly once they start they'll

be quick

and he sent and signified it signified

it rendered it into signs

by uh by his angel unto the servant john

who bear record of the of the word of

god and of the testament of jesus christ

and of all the things that he saw

you're going to if you watch carefully

as you go through the book you see john

sees things he hears things he feels

things he falls in the ground this is a

very very dynamic uh physically

interactive experience that john is

going to experience

okay

let me signify it run it into signs

and verse 3 is

has the equivalent several places in the

book we'll just grab it here while we're

here

it's a blessing that you and i are going

to claim right now

blessed is he that readeth and they that

hear the words of this prophecy and keep

those things which are written therein

for the time is at hand

and then he goes on of course john to

the seven churches which are in asia

you'll understand the book itself

is like a

a package that's being sent

not to one church to all seven

each of the seven churches will have a

part of it but they'll also get the

whole thing if you will

john to the seven churches which are in

asia the word asia of course is not the

continent as we use the term it's the

pro-consular asia it's a province of the

roman government it's the area that you

and i think of today as turkey

grace be unto you and peace

from him which is which was and which is

to come from the seven spirits which are

before his throne and from jesus christ

who is the faithful witness the first

begotten of the dead and the prince of

the kings of the earth unto him that

loved us and washed us from from our

sins in his own blood

here we have a trinity illusion

from him which is which was and which is

to come which many of us would visualize

as the father and from jesus christ who

is the faithful witness

and then we have between these two this

interesting phrase the seven spirits

which are before his throne some

scholars think that seven key angels

that are going to show up later but most

of us i think see that as a seven-fold

holy spirit as detailed in isaiah

chapter 11 first couple of verses but in

any case this is just by way of review

and warm-up the key thing that i want us

all to be sensitive to as we go that

we're dealing with an integrated design

the new testament is in the old

testament concealed

and in this case it's the other way

around the old testament is in the new

testament revealed we're dealing with a

single book and our whole premise of our

approach this book is the recognition

that every detail is there deliberately

that's true of the whole bible but it's

especially true book of revelation every

subtly every detail even the structure

will tell us things that are

below the surface and we'll try to

highlight some of those as we go

now in chapter one we had an

introduction then the salutation

occasion

then the main core of chapter one is a

vision of the risen christ that we went

through last time

but just to go through it quickly i was

in the spirit on the lord's day that is

not sunday many people assume it's

sunday it's the day of the lord it's a

very common phrase in the old testament

and joel and others talk about

i was in the spirit on the day of the

lord and heard behind me a great voice

as of a trumpet

what kind of a trumpet is important but

we'll talk about that when we get to

chapter eight and following

saying i am alpha and omega the first

and the last and what thou seest write

in the book and send it to the seven

churches which are in asia to ephesus on

the smyrna and

pergamus and under thyatira into sardis

and into philadelphia and until i had to

see you

seven churches

now one of the questions that should

lurk in your consciousness as we go

through all of this why these seven

63 years

since pentecost and the giving of the

holy spirit

there are now over a hundred churches

around

and many of those were in the pro

council of asia not just these seven why

not rome

jerusalem antioch colossae philippi

galatia iconium lystra derby mellitus

and so on and so forth you yourself

familiar with new testament can list a

whole bunch of churches many of which

you would think are far more prominent

than these seven why were these seven

chosen

don't answer now keep that keep your

options open as we go forward i think

you'll be startled to realize how

uniquely these churches fit a some very

complex models

john says i turned to see the voice that

spake with me and being turned i saw

seven golden lampstands

now lampstands are light bearers not the

source of light

and they will before the chapter is over

they'll be explained what they

actually are

and the midst of the seven lamp stands

one like the son of man clothed with a

garment down to the foot and gird about

the the chest with a breastplate in

effect

now

uh

we have a physical description

of christ here in heaven

and there's there's much to it there's a

whole section that uh i'll just

summarize in a minute but he had in his

right hand seven stars and out of his

mouth went a sharp two-edged sword and

his countenance was as the sun shineth

in the strength the sharp two-edged

sword you see some artists try to

literally run that render that in the

painting of this of course grotesque the

term is an idiom for what what's the

sharp two-edged sword anyway the word of

god exactly three or four times in the

new testament exactly what it is called

and his countenance was as the sun

shineth in his strength and that all

should echo matthew 17 the

transfiguration

but amy john says when i saw him i felt

his feet is dead and he laid his right

hand upon me saying to me fear not i am

the first and the last.

and last time we went through the seven

occasions where that phrase is used of

jesus christ in the old new testament

and

so we won't go through but that's each

one of these things

i encourage you to have a concordance at

your side and every one of these phrases

that strikes your ear strange get a

concordance find out what's the where

else they appear and it'll all

the fog a lift but the vision of chapter

one had seven features his hair on his

head

was white it was taken from daniel seven

verse nine in effect his eyes is a flame

of friar that's

bear in mind it's a simile we talked

about that uh his feet which is a symbol

of the walk the brass of judgment we

talked about the brazen serpent and all

of that last time

he had a voice of many waters

how do you argue with niagara falls i

mean it's not a whisper it's not the

little still small voice that elijah

heard no this is something

far more

much stronger in his right hand he has

seven stars now it's interesting

these lamp stands he's in the midst of

them on the one hand at the same time

they're all pictured as in his hand now

that's a paradox

how can he be in among them and have

them in his hand

but what is it talking about that he's

among us

and he is in control idiom taken from

john 10 and elsewhere

is out of his mouth the two-edged sword

we've talked about that which has a

number of functions it judges the

believers it smites the earth and

elderly consumes the antichrist

and of course everything's in seven the

seven elements here finish with the

countless as the son

but then we get to verse 19. the reason

i'm going through this review of chapter

one because it's important to have this

perspective before we jump in to this

the most important section of the book

of revelation which is chapters two and

three and i'll show you why

revelation provides its own outline

and

in verse 19 john

is told to write the things which thou

hast seen the things which are and the

things which shall be hereafter a little

short verse

but the things which thou hast seen when

you get to verse 19 what has he seen

the vision of christ in chapter one it's

now behind us

so that's the things

that he has seen

write the things which are present tense

that's the seven churches that'll emerge

in chapters two and three

and then the thing which that which

follows after the churches in chapters

four through twenty two

the word hereafter in the english is

actually a translation of the greek

metatauta and chapter four verse one is

that key is that signal word metatauda

and goes on so we'll we'll show you why

we hold the view and by the way

something else let me underscore we're

not here

to try to indulge in controversies that

we we're really here to teach to

encourage you

to do your own study

we will share what we believe and why we

believe it we'll try to highlight the

alternative views when we as we go but

we're not here to sell a particular view

as much as we will put it out

candidly to help you with your study but

we're assuming that you will use acts 17

11 as your guide that's where luke tells

you don't believe anything chuck mister

tells you but search it up for yourself

speaking of the bereans

this be they were more noble than those

in thessalonica in that they received

the word of god with all openness of

mind but

they searched the scriptures daily to

prove where those things be so

but

so on there are many

good scholars that will not agree with

some of the views that we're going to

present

and i just want you to be aware of that

and you should

resolve it with your own study

but it's chapters two and three that we

feel are the key to the book the reason

is that's the part that we are involved

in

we believe that we we will be in heaven

from chapter four verse one onward

and which it's a very strange view not

held by everyone but we'll show you why

we hold that view as we go

so

the last verse of the chapter is really

just a prep four verse chapters two and

three

um

john writes the mystery of the seven

stars which i sought in my right hand

and the seven golden lamps lampstands

the seven stars of the angels of the

seven churches and the seven lampstands

which thou sawest are the seven churches

and by the way one thing you'll notice

if you peek ahead

the lamp stands are on the earth in

chapter one they are in heaven in

chapter four i'm not building a case on

that there's more more convincing issues

but i mentioned that in passing

so we are now going to explore the seven

churches the things which are

and one of the questions why these seven

keep keep that open and and jot your

notes as we go forward

one of the things you'll discover

is each letter has a closing phrase

it has a it has a a title of the church

it has a title that jesus chooses of

himself

he takes one of the identities from

chapter one to reflect to refer to

himself it's a different one for each

church for it's all consistent with the

theme of the church

then it's like a report card and i'll

show you that in a minute but it each

one closes with this strange phrase

he that hath an ear

let him hear what the spirit says to the

churches well this has this these four

letters these seven letters have four

levels of application the first one's

pretty obvious they were real

local churches at the time

and they've been investigated thoroughly

by the experts so william ramsey

established quite clearly their

existence and the fact that they had

problems

at this time

that these letters seem to address

head-on

so they have a very valid local

application and you can say gee that's

it that's enough no there's more to that

you notice

that the holy spirit says he that have

an ear letter hear what the spirit says

to the churches plural in other words

every church was to pay attention to

what was said to each of the seven

so it's an admonitory uh application

each church every church that you can

find on the planet earth will have

elements of all seven in it

some

more than others once you understand the

seven letters each one has a theme each

one face certain problems each one had

certain recommendations

all of them

apply to all churches to varying degrees

and that's if you understand those seven

you can map any church you run into

as how much it has two two taste two

teaspoons of this one and four

tablespoons of that one or whatever you

follow me

okay so if that makes sense but there's

a third level

it is homiletic personal

how many of you have an earlobe can i

see a show of hands

okay it says he that hath an ear that's

you

let him hear him

him or her

uh hear what the spirit says to the

churches

so there is a sense very clear sense in

which each of these seven letters apply

to us personally independent of what

church you might be attending

are we together so far

now so far we're on sound ground very

few people have much

coral with that

but fasten your seat belts

there's a fourth level

that's prophetic

and this is very controversial there are

some that

would take exception to this but i'm

going to let you draw your own

conclusions

but i'll point out to you that in the

order that they're in in your bible

they will profile the history of the

church from the apostolic day to today

and if they were in any other order that

would not be true

and so that having been said we of

course will be exploring that as we go

now this prophetic profile we have

ephesus smyrna pergamus thyatira sardis

philadelphia and laodicea and what i'm

going to try to show you as we go

forward that each of these have

an implied future

and some of those futures are very very

startlingly different

something else i'll try to remember to

point out as we go but let me mention

right up front

one of the key lessons you'll get from

this study

is that every one of the seven churches

was surprised by the result

because each of the letters by jesus

christ is a report card

here's what you've done good here's what

you need to work on

it's like a report card

every one of the seven churches was

surprised

those that thought they were doing well

were not

those that were thought they were not

doing well were doing a lot better than

they thought

so this should give us some humility

so whatever you think of your church

you want to hold an advance and measure

against jesus christ's report cards to

these seven and come to your own

conclusions and we'll work this as we go

you'll also discover as you go

that there are seven elements of each of

the church each of the seven letters

if you can if you can visualize a

spreadsheet

with seven rows and seven columns

make each column a church you'll have

seven rows

the name of the church the title of

christ

his commendations his concerns

his uh exhortations i'll go through this

first of all the name of the church

you'll discover that the name of the

church is very relevant to the main

theme of the church

jesus christ chooses a title to refer to

himself that's selected from one of the

titles uh drawn from chapter one but

each one's different because each one

has a slightly different emphasis

then he has a commendation here's what

you did well here's your a's

got an a in this and an a of this a b in

this not bad

but then he has his concerns whoops

you get to this word nevertheless

and you hold your breath

then of course he has an exhortation

gives him some specific advice

then you have a promise to the overcomer

in the letter there is a specific

promise to the individual

in that situation

and then you have the last thing is the

closing phrase he that hath an ear

hear what the spirit says by the way

that phrase he that hath an ear occurs

outside of the book of revelation

seven other places

so on the final exam it says how many

times is he that half an ear show up

don't say seven is fourteen

seven in revelation seven elsewhere but

that's a hint let's go on here

so you could make a spreadsheet of these

seven churches at

ephesus through laodicea

and you you can take each name what it

means

the title is used

take the commendation the concerns the

exhortation the prompts the overcomer

and then this last phrase and what i

encourage you to do in your private

study is to take a large sheet of paper

that can be laid out horizontally

and paste in

the text

in all the squares to give you the

spreadsheet i could hand one out but i'd

rather just do it yourself because it'll

it's a worthwhile exercise for yourself

for your own notebook

what i'd like to do at this point let's

take your bibles

and let's read together

i could have put it on the screen too

but i thought i don't want to

develop bad habits here i think it would

be useful for us to actually get your

bible

we've got the lighting approved thanks

to some donations that came in so we got

better light now and more comfortable

seats

the seats are now i can talk two or

three hours without getting comfortable

i'm kidding

i do believe in the spiritual gifts

minus flippancy

okay chapter two verse one read just

read along with me

unto the angel of the church of ephesus

right these things saith he

that holdeth the seven stars in his

right hand who walketh in the midst of

the seven golden candlesticks the word

candlesticks is the king james and more

pro it's luca in the greek it's really a

lamp stand

verse two i know thy works

and i labor and thy patience and how

thou cast not bear them which are evil

and thou has tried them which say they

are apostles and are not and has found

them liars

and that's born and has patience for my

name's sake has labored and has not

fainted

see that's the good news then you get to

verse

four

nevertheless i have somewhat against

thee because thou has left thy first

love

remember therefore from once thou art

fallen and repent and do the first works

or else i will come unto thee quickly

and will remove thy lamp stand out of

his place except thou repent

but this thou hast

that thou hatest the deeds of the

nicolaitans which i also hate he that

hath in the ear let him hear with the

spirit saith unto the churches

to him that overcometh what i give to

eat of the tree of life which is in the

midst of the paris paradise of god

first seven verses constitute the letter

to ephesus

well let's just take it apart the word

ephesus in the greek means the desired

one

the desired one an equivalent term is

darling

the one and only

interesting

interesting

label

unto the angel of the church of ephesus

right

then we have the title of jesus christ

that he chooses of himself these things

say of he that holdeth the seven stars

at his right hand who walketh in the

midst of the seven golden lamp stands

you know it's interesting these are this

is of course the phrase we just read in

chapter one it's very familiar in years

at this point but i want you to notice

the paradox of the care here

he is walking among us and yet we are in

his nail scarred hand

the emphasis here that jesus is present

and he's in control

and that's something that's that's a

theme i encourage you to study as you go

through your gospels you realize that

the lord that the betrayal of judas was

not judas's timing the lord precipitated

it by announcing it that night they had

not planned to take him on a feast day

that's expressed in the scripture

because they feared the romans

but jesus by announcing it that night

controls the timing judas had a split

and

he had a fisher-cut bait so they had to

throw their arrangements together that

night

and when you get to gethsemane who's

giving all the orders

not the soldiers

who seek ye

i said i'm he if i seek let them go

there get let them go their way

who's giving all the orders jesus is all

the way through

i know thy works

you know that can go that's on our

report card too

as jesus writes your report card it

might it probably say i know thy works

whatever you're doing good and bad he

knows about

i'll tell you a little uh

grandson asked his grandpa

can god see me all the time

he's told he loves you so much he can't

take his eyes off you great answer great

answer

i know thy works and i labor and thy

patience

and how about can't not bear them which

are evil

and thou hast tried them which say they

are apostles and are not and has found

them liars

in other words they did a good job

at

digging out heresy

about clinging to sound doctrine they

apparently did that

in a very good way

it has borne and has patience for my

name's sake it has labored and has not

faded

now without counting how many

commendations you think they got

seven good for you

good guess

if you go through and count them there's

seven

i think it's impossible for you

to make a list

of all the sevens in the book of

revelation

you can get up to a hundred and get

tired by then because many of them are

so subtle it really takes some digging

but they're everywhere

and we'll highlight a few as we go

everybody knows about the seven seals

the seven trumpets seven bowls hey

that's just

that's just for starters

testing doctrines you know paul

gave a warning to the elders of this

church

timothy was probably his first bishop

and his the fair paul's farewell to the

ephesian elders in acts chapter 20. what

you should do for in preparation for

this uh

session was to read acts 18 to 20 which

is a great deal of

background on the uh ephesian church

so paul had his farewell warnings we'll

look at them in detail in a minute

but john himself also gave some warnings

in his first and second epistles and

we'll take a quick look at those in a

little bit

but i said there are four levels of

application let's start with a local

picture there really was a church in a

place called ephesus and let's find out

a little bit about it it was founded in

about 1400 bc

with a very early temple to an ancient

hittite fertility deity which became

identified of course later with artemis

or diana

the ionian colonists from athens settled

there about 1100 bc when you get up to

about 6th century bc the lydians

captured the city

and then christus their king was routed

by the persians and ephesus was joined

to the other cities in the iowa

confederation it was about this time

that we see a diana or artemis surface

in their cultural

traditions and

ephesus was involved in the

peloponnesian wars to its disadvantage

and

but it served as it was a key naval base

in those days

it has problems later

it fell to the macedonians under

alexander and after when alexander dies

as you may recall uh four of his key

generals took over his empire lysimicus

became master of the city and

tried to make it a model city really you

know really made it very elaborate

and

again ephesus seems to have a

an ability to pick the wrong sides of

battles they they unwisely side with

antiochus of syria against the romans

eventually though do become a roman

capital

of the what the roman province of asia

the western part of the province of asia

but it did have it was a free city so

that meant it had its own municipal

government and senate

and both straba and josephus are sources

on background if you want to get into

that

it was called the queen of asia it's one

of the most beautiful cities in the

region

it was the capital of ionia and it had

the chief harbor that's what was a naval

base earlier and that's why it it it

continued to be a key naval base however

the romans

tore up all the trees which caused

erosion and that erosion started to fill

the harbor so the harbor became more and

more problematical

to where today it's six miles inland

and so uh

but it was extremely wealthy and

beautiful in those days he was

near

the mouth of the river coaster which is

now the meander

and it was the principal line of

communication

between rome and the eastern provinces

there are three key roads that pass

through sardis and galatia and so forth

and that made it it was on it was in a

very very strategic location it's

interesting how paul

would always target his activities

at a major crossroads he was very shrewd

in his choices

to give you a quick feeling of this you

may last time we talked about where

patmos was uh we'll zero in on patmos

just as a frame of reference here

but ephesus is along

the west coast of uh

this of the uh province called asia and

we'll talk more about that as we look a

little more of the geography the

architecture is astonishing you have a

theater there that is 495 feet in

diameter

held 25 000 people

there's a marble way i'll show you some

pictures of all of this with statues and

so forth um

through the city

there's a main way

that's almost 2000 feet long 70 feet

wide i'll show you pictures that in a

minute here

and the there is apparently what some

scholars feel was the first bank

they say in the world i'm not sure

that's true but it certainly was a major

the priests at the temple of diana were

also

major international bankers in

in and that was one of the sources of

power if you go there

the digs are extensive

here's a picture as you go down to the

from the main area down to the what's

called the library

the that's just the facade there the

library had 200

000 volumes and that was before printing

think about it

what they also won't normally tell you

unless you have

some access here to the right of us is

the main way and down the main way our

shops and the brothels

and the

archaeologists have discovered there's a

tunnel from the library to the brothels

so if your husband signed out to the

library girls you want to check that out

though

this is just swinging to the right this

is the main way and some of the brothels

are on the right side there

uh this is a shot of the theater

and perhaps the aerial view is more

revealing than the rest

pretty impressive

and

if you get a chance it's it yeah ephesus

is not hard to get to it's worth uh

visiting

but in in the days of the new testament

the most outstanding architectural

feature was the temple of diana that

presumably was the daughter of zeus the

sister of apollo

and it was one of the seven wonders of

the ancient world it was in ephesus

four times as large as the parthenon in

athens

this thing was huge it stood on a

platform of 425 feet by 220.

the building itself was 340 by 165 with

127 ionic columns each 60 feet high this

was

by anyone's standards an impressive

piece of architecture and but it's very

much involved with very ecstatic

sexual rights that we

are not in a position to discuss in the

mixed audience

it was the largest city of its day

the harbor gradually became unusable and

the traffic was diverted to smyrna which

is today the city of izmir

and but ephesus was also the study

center for arts and magic

and they had all kinds of occultic stuff

that was of course burned in acts 19 19

you may recall

paul's first

visit was brief and was directed towards

the jewish community

he later made a second visit it was

driven from the synagogue but he settled

the school of toronto for two years

until the uproar of 58 a.d

and that's all in acts 19 and 20.

and of course ephesus later became the

center for missionary operations

throughout asia

there were imitators that followed it

without power he may be

may remember the seven sons of skiva and

all that business

timothy may have become ephesus first

bishop

and it's here that we find akilah

priscilla apollos all these familiar

stories from the book of acts

and uh

now according to esibius

and some others

john returned there after he finished in

patmos he was in patmos for about 10

years

but when

the mission dies

john is released

and he's uh the records are that he

returned to ephesus and

and set things

busy himself setting things in order but

he finishes closing years there

his gospel was apparently written there

from ephesus in those closing years

timothy john and mary's tombs are

in

ephesus after paul left ephesus

he journeyed through macedonia returned

to mellitus which is near ephesus i'll

show you that on the map for his famous

farewell to the ephesian elders first

corinthians hit paul's epistle of the

countries was penned during his second

visit and his epistle to ephesus is

written when paul is later in rome four

years later after he leaves

now the bishop of ephesus was accorded

rank authority patriarch over the

churches of the whole province of asia

in 431 a.d we're now showing you a

little history after the new testament

period

emperor theodosius the second called a

general church council at ephesus

because it was a hot debate at the time

as to whether the virgin mary should be

described as the mother of god

and 200 bishops at this third ecumenical

council decided in the affirmative but

that's widely misunderstood

um the

the the emperor of the east theodosis ii

and the valentinian of the west both

convened this

council because of a heresy known as

nestorianism

and nestorius who's a patriarch of

constantinople that is in the east

he refused to accord the title mother of

god to mary the mother of jesus christ

but the whole point was

the proponents of

emphasize the separateness of the human

and divine in christ

claiming in effect that he was two

persons one divine and the other human

and accordingly mary was considered the

mother of man jesus not of the divine

jesus

that was the nestorian's view

but this was opposed

to the accepted doctrine that christ was

a single person at one at this at once

both god and man

and under the leadership of saint cyril

the patriarch of alexander the council

deposed it nestorius and condemned his

doctrine

it declared that jesus christ is the

true god and true man

and that he has two natures human and

divine joined in one person

so see on that basis they're on sound

ground

what derives from that a logical

extension of that view then the council

approved the title

theotokos for mary which means god

bearer

not the mother of god but the god bearer

in other words they're saying christ was

both god man and she certainly was his

mother so she was the god bearer that

gets twisted later

to be into the title mother of god

which of course carries a much different

connotation

and so that this is often misunderstood

when you look at what really happened to

council you can't find fault with what

they ruled

but the way it's applied is or twisted

later is something else again anyway the

chief rival of ephesus was mellitus

but it's its harbor also is the subject

of erosion for a while

but uh even in the first century paul

landed mellitus after one of its many

dredging i'll show you that on the map

in a minute

and it gets destroyed by the goths

in 262. never never retains its earlier

jesus letter the letter we're reading in

book of revelations is about 35 years

after paul's departure

now we want to understand paul's

departure of the his his

uh famous touching

uh farewell address to the elders at

ephesus let's pick it up in acts 20

verse 16 for paul had determined to sail

by ephesus because he would not spend

the time in asia for he hasted if it

were possible for him to be at jerusalem

the day of pentecost in other words the

feast of uh

chavot he's trying to get to

there this is one of the three feasts in

the jewish year that was obligatory for

an able-bodied jew to be in jerusalem

and he's trying to make that commitment

so he doesn't go to ephesus he goes

he goes to mellitus and from melitas

when he lands in melitus he sends word

to ephesus and he has the elders come to

see him

and if you see there's ephesus and

there's mellitus

and so the elders have to travel

quite a ways

i'm guessing that would be probably uh

more than 20 miles

to meet with paul

some scholars believe he paul did this

for two reasons one is that the harbor

was still more useful in the lightest

ephesus starting to have

erosion problems silt and so forth so is

melitus for that matter but also they

believe that paul was trying to avoid

the crowds he wanted to deal with just

the elders

and so the elders come to mellitus and

that's where paul

has his touching farewell he says when

they were come to him

he said to them ye know from the first

day that i came into asia after what

manner i have been with you at all

seasons

serving the lord with all humility of

mine

and with many tears and temptations

which befell me by

the lying and weight of the jews

and how i kept back nothing that was

profitable unto you

but have showed you and have taught you

publicly and from house to house

interesting phrase by the way

house to house

it's interesting to realize that all the

fellowships

in the book of acts were in homes

even acts too

churches as we think of them weren't

invented until the third fourth century

house to house

home fellowships that was the original

form of fellowship

the

home fellowships were ostracized by the

medieval church of course

even the reformers calvin and

luther and others tried to stamp out the

home fellowships

and many churches today do not encourage

home fellowships

we happen to believe that that's where

people really grow in the 50 years i've

been an active christian i've seen most

of the blossoming of people occur in

small

fellowships beating during the week and

we think it's also the viable form for

the underground church which we also

think is coming j verne mcgee predicted

in america that the real body of christ

is ultimately going to go underground

and the attack against and will be led

by the denominational churches

that was very radical 20 years ago it's

starting to look very very real today

let's get back to paul he says

testifying both the jews and also the

greeks repentance toward god and faith

to our lord jesus christ

and now behold i go bound in the spirit

unto jerusalem not knowing the things

that shall befall me there say that the

holy ghost witnesses in every city

saying that bonds and afflictions abide

me in other words

they're just full of warnings to paul

what he's facing when he gets back to

jerusalem

but none of these things move me neither

count i my life

dear unto myself so that i might finish

my course with joy and the ministry

which i received the lord jesus to

testify the gospel of the grace of god

and now behold i know that ye all among

whom i have gone preaching the kingdom

of god shall see my face no more

wherefore i take you to record this day

that i am pure from the blood of all men

for i have not shunned to declare unto

you all the counsel of god boy that's a

key phrase

the whole council of god that's our

protection against dc

take heed therefore unto yourselves and

to all the flock

over the which the holy ghost hath made

you overseers to feed the church of god

which he hath purchased with his own

blood for i know this get this now here

he starts hitting it

that after mighty party

shall grievous wolves enter in among you

not sparing the flock

grievous wolves enter in among you

it's interesting to realize that these

elders heeded his warning

because 35 years later when jesus christ

gives them their report card they did

well in this regard

they were listening

he goes paul goes on and also of your

own selves shall memorize speaking

perverse things to draw away disciples

after them

therefore watch and remember that by the

space of three years i ceased not to

warn everyone

night and day with tears

now brethren i commend you to god and to

the word of his grace which is able to

build you up and to give you an

inheritance among all them which are

sanctified

interesting warning

also of your own selves shall men arise

and that's exactly what jesus

compliments them for he commends them

for being diligent in that regard

paul continues i have coveted no man's

silver gold or apparel

yea you yourselves know that these hands

have ministered unto my necessities and

to them that were with me i have showed

you all things how that's so laboring ye

ought to support the weak and to

remember the words of the lord jesus how

he said it is more blessed to give than

to receive

how many have heard that before

hey can you find it anywhere in the

gospels

meshach realized that you won't find

that in the gospels

here's a quote from jesus christ that's

from paul you i don't think you i don't

think you'll find in the gospels like

somebody correct me if i'm wrong but uh

anyway let's move on

and when he had thus spoken he kneeled

down and prayed for the with them all

and they all wept sore and fell on

paul's neck and kissed him sorrowing

most of all for the words which he spake

that they should see his face no more

and they accompanied him unto the ship

so when's that chapter

now when you get to john john wrote in

addition to a gospel in the book of

revelation he also wrote three epistles

first john which is an extensive

profound epistle

was to ephesus by the way

second john

we believe was a personal note to mary

and i won't it into that whole case here

you can just read it the first sentence

pretty makes it pretty clear

and so let's just look a couple of

quotes in first john 4

john's letter to ephesus beloved believe

not every spirit but try the spirits

where they are of god because many false

prophets are gone out into the world

hereby know ye the spirit of god

every spirit that confesseth that jesus

christ is come in the flesh is of god

and every spirit that confesses not that

jesus christ has come in the flesh is

not of god

and this is the spirit of the antichrist

wherever you have heard that it should

come and even now already it is in the

world

john uses the phrase antichrist twice

but he doesn't use it of that to which

we usually apply it he's spearing he's

speaking here of the spirit of

antichrist

the uh the the one that we call the

antichrist this coming world leader has

33 different titles in the old testament

13 and the new and this isn't this and

john john the one that uses the word

antichrist doesn't use it of him we get

revelations he uses a different phrase

altogether so we'll get into that

but anyway that's john's warning to the

church at ephesus again echoing the same

thing paul

dealt with

in his letter to mary he has some

strange remarks in here

for many deceivers are entered into the

world who confess not that jesus christ

has come in the flesh this is a deceiver

and an antichrist look to yourselves

that we lose not those things which we

have wrought but that we receive a full

reward whosoever transgresseth and

abideth not in the doctrine of christ

hath not god he that abideth the

doctrine of christ he hath both the

father and the son

it's very interesting as you read ii

john that he is giving both

encouragement and exhortation

to the one that he was charged to take

care of at the cross

and i challenge you to take a look at

that come to your own conclusions about

that letter let's move on oh um

if there come any of you and bring not

this doctrine and receive him not into

your house neither bid him godspeed for

he that

bit of him godspeed is partaker of his

evil deeds

he's warning mary not to take a false

teacher under her roof

why

we're admonished to show hospitality

why could she not do that because for

her to do it would be sanctioning their

doctrine

see the difference many people try to

apply this and generally i think it

applies to her but let's move on let's

get back to the letter

we had the good news jesus commends

the church at ephesus for their

trying those that say they're apostles

or not and found them liars right

then we get to verse four nevertheless

i have somewhat against thee

because thou hast left thy first love

this is the key line

of this entire letter

because thou has left thy first love the

word first is protos it means first in

rank

influence honor the chief or principle

the superlative love that's what he's

talking about

they have left their first love

they're too busy

on the business of the king

to have any time for the king

god would prefer to have devotion

rather than doctrine

that's the message here

i should say in addition to doctrine

we're talking here the love of a spousal

all through the scripture old and new

testament we have the joy associated

with salvation the joy of their

salvation is all through psalm 51

jeremiah 2 and so on

the first name fruit of the spirit in

galatians 5 is what

love of course

it goes deeper than just these

admonitions god uses the marriage

to communicate his most intimate truths

and we're going to see more about that

when we get into the harpazzo the

rapture and all of that

and that's the most intimate truth of

god and it's going to be the most

startling linkage to the jewish wedding

structure

and if you want to get into

this in more depth i strongly encourage

you some books that have been taught in

five continents that have changed lives

wherever they land that's my wife's

books called the wave agape

and that it really

they'll speak for themselves

there are 20 references to this

particular grace found in paul's epistle

to the ephesians

that paul's epistle of the ephesians is

full of this of course

now it's interesting what we're really

asking what jesus in effect is saying he

wants mary's as well as martha's you may

recall luke ken there's the famous

incident with mary and martha

in luke 10 start about verse 38 now it

came to pass as they went that he

entered into a certain village and a

certain woman named martha received him

into her house

and she had a sister called mary which

also sat at jesus feet and heard his

word

but martha was cumbered about with much

serving

and came to and said lord dost thou not

care that my sister hath left me to

serve alone bitter therefore that she

helped me

jesus answered and senator martha martha

thou art careful and troubled

about many things

but one thing is needful

and mary hath chosen that good part

which shall not be taken away from her

interesting that jesus sanctions the

fact that mary is at his feet to learn

and

he he's looking for devotion

that outranks everything else

well let's get to the back to the

uh jesus's letter

get to we're now

at verse

chapter 2 verses 5 and 6 remember

therefore from whence thou art fallen

and repent and do the first works or

else i will come unto thee quickly and

will move thy lampstand out of this

place except thou repent

you know it's interesting the remember

repent and then repent again

is in the errors tense

that's

intending to envisage no delay do it now

and uh

where is

the lamp stand of ephesus today

it's gone it's going

there's another little thing that he

mentions here but this thou has he has a

positive here he throws in but this the

house that thou hatest the deeds of the

nicolaitans which i also hate

notice he hates the deeds he doesn't

hate the nicolaitans

and uh these deeds here

will become doctrines in the next letter

we'll talk about it there more in more

depth but nicolettens

some scholars suggest the possibility

that there was a first century sect

claiming apostolic authority for their

opinions

they take this from the name of one of

the seven deacons in acts um six that um

the guy by the name of nicholas that he

formed a sect that was claiming

apostolic authority

and there are some scholars that cling

to that there are others that believe

that this word is an untranslated word

it comes from the greek nikkei which

means to conquer or overcome

and laity or laos laity are people

that this this the the deeds here that

was offending christ is the tendency for

the clergy to rule over the laity

creating hierarchies

and

jesus gave us

an organization chart the way he saw the

church

and he did that in john 13.

remember he washed their feet

you all know the story

when he did he says then if i then your

lord and master have washed your feet ye

also ought to wash one another's feet

for i have given you an example that ye

should do as i have done to you

verily verily i said to you the servant

is not greater than his lord neither he

that is sent greater than he that sent

him

so if jesus was that humble it gives us

the pattern we should follow

and this whole idea of the clergy over

the laity is something that apparently

offends jesus christ well okay we talked

about uh local now let's talk about to

how can this apply to all churches

well see jesus is

acknowledging they did well in having

doctrinal purity

he has an abhorrence for heresy of

course

but the key thing that they were lacking

was devotion to their king

they had left their first love or

primary love two businesses on the

business too busy on the business of

king to rather than for the king himself

paul's epistle to the ephesians

deals with this whole issue was written

from rome four years after his farewell

and epistle ephesians very similar to

the epistle of colossians they're both

written about the same time

but colossians very much has to do with

um

theosophy

but ephesians is simply a letter

expressing paul's love to the church

there

and he has this intense desire that they

be fully instructed in the profound

doctrines of the gospel so his letter

ephesians would be an appropriate

appendix to all of this i encourage you

to it's a little you know four chapter

book read it in in concert with this

letter

that brings us to the personal

application of this letter

you ever study the difference between

david and solomon

david pervades the scripture

solomon is mentioned only with adverse

comments

the lily of the field was not arrayed

like

like these and so forth you know he

there's always a back of the hand aspect

the comments about solomon

well solomon sought wisdom very

appropriately on the one hand but yet he

later became apostate

through his foreign wives he apparently

didn't love the lord the way david did

david simply

sought fellowship

to dwell in the house of the lord

forever the contrast between the two his

entry psalm was very wise but still blew

it at the end of his days

david

blew it too with bathsheba and what have

you

but he repented and his heart

was

focused on on the lord

the primary admonition he wants devotion

not just doctrine

the first commandment thou shalt do what

love the lord thy god with all the heart

soul strength that's the in the old

testament the shema deuteronomy 6 5.

first corinthians 13 should be read here

no thought of self

if i speak of the with the tongues of

men and of angels and so forth you know

the passage

first love

is the abandonment of all

for a love that has abandoned all

that's what god is after

so

speaking of the personal applications i

mentioned the third commandment thou

shall not take the name of the lord that

god in vain i think it's ambassadorship

not vocabulary i've mentioned that

before

and i think that god would have our

first

priority on a devotional life

and here again if you want a very

astonishing book a startling book

i encourage you to look at my wife's

latest book private worship the key to

joy

it's a com it's an issue of commitment

not melodies

and uh encourage you take a look at that

then we get to this closing phrase he

that have to near let him hear what

spirit says in the churches but notice

something strange here

the promise of the overcomer is like a

after an afterthought a post script

if the he that half an ear phrase closes

the letter we see to him that overcometh

i will

as a phrase that is like a an appendage

like a like a ps

and we're gonna discover that's true of

the first three letters but not the last

four

and i'm going to suggest to you there's

something very interesting about a

difference in structure of the different

seven letters that we allow when we've

gone through all of them but in any case

to him that overcometh will i give to

eat of the tree of life which is the

midst of the paradise of god

we all recognize that from genesis 1.

but

let's just take a look at the

we have ephesus the first of these the

first three were taken and we we've got

the

we've had the name the title the

commendation the concerns the

expectation the promise overcomer except

when we got to item six

we notice that it's

a postscript

it's underneath

the closing

and that doesn't seem to tell us

anything yet but i think it'll tell us a

great deal as we go forward

and this tree of life of course we know

it from

the genesis 1 it's also though the

subject of a lot of myths of the heathen

the persians have their dreams about it

the hindus the arabs the greeks

and assyria it's interesting that

echoes of this

of genesis still echoes even through

pagan

myths and so forth

there's a denouement paul's warning in

acts and john's letters uh warned the

ephesians church

where's their lamp stand today however

it's obviously gone ephesus is now six

miles from the sea

it's unapproachable by ship

what was major harbors now marsh dense

with reeds and what was once the key

city in asia is now a desolation

worth visiting for ruins but it's a

desolation

well that leaves us the last one

and i'm just going to suggest as we

close on this

that uh this prophetic profile that we

talked about ephesus smyrna pergamus

thyatira the rest they'll be more

meaningful i'm just going to suggest

that ephesus appears to be a profile of

the apostolic

church very diligent on doctrine

and yet

lacking in devotion

and

we'll see smyrna will be a totally

different situation that we'll explore

next time

in our next session

i'd like you as you do for each of these

sessions read chapters two and three it

doesn't take long read the whole bunch

but i'd like you to outline the letter

to smyrna

take those seven elements and see if you

can identify the seven elements the

letter to smyrna

i'll give you a clue two of them are

missing

and if you don't outline it with that

structure you won't notice that they're

missing you follow me

but check it out

but i'm gonna have you do something else

that may surprise you in preparation for

as we go forward

most of you are aware of the fact that

there that four disciples came to jesus

for a confidential briefing on a second

coming

it occurred on the mount of olives we

call that the olivet discourse it's

recorded in three gospels matthew 24

luke 21 and mark 13.

and i think most of us tend to lean

on the matthew account for two reasons

it was a jewish issue and he was jewish

but more importantly he took shorthand

so most of his discourses are more

thorough than the others because he was

he had that as a job a job skill

you'll find most commentaries will tell

you that matthew chapter 24

and the recording in luke chapter 21

are the same thing

and i'm going to ask you to read it

not just in matthew 24

but in luke 21

and compare them closely

and see if they are the same thing

and i think you may discover

that

they're not

they are different

and they're different in some

non-trivial ways now rather than leave

that just hanging i've got a few minutes

here let me just throw it in here

the the in in matthew 24 verses 4

through 10

it mentions false christs wars famines

death martyrs and global chaos luke does

the same thing in in chapter 21 4

through

the end of the chapter

what makes this interesting to us when

we finish the seven churches is we'll

discover in the book of revelation

chapter six

we have the four horsemen and so forth

we'll notice the pattern of the four

horsemen and what follows

parallels

the false christ wars and rumors and

famines and death and the martyrs of

both of the olivet discourse in both

matthew and luke you with me so far

there's a parallelism that's widely

recognized by most scholars

except there's something else that's

kind of interesting

it seems that luke and matthew have a

different focus

luke mentions that cluster of signs

but he says in verse 12 but before all

these certain things are going to happen

matthew mentions those same cluster of

signs says all these are the beginning

of sorrows then shall they in other

words after this

in other words there seems to be

these signs false christ wars famines

earthquakes

what luke talks about comes before them

and what matthew talks about comes after

them

wow

are they talking about the same thing or

are they talking about different things

see ones before these ones after then

shall they

well let's try to take another look at

this

if that's luke 21 and that's matthew 24

the wars famines earthquakes and so

forth

are a cluster of events that sound very

much the same in both accounts no

problem so far

but luke talks about things that

happened before those signs

and matthew

after

luke talks about the fall of jerusalem

in 70 a.d

very clearly

and that occurs before these signs

matthew talks about

destruction i'll call that desolation

number two

that's not only after these signs it's

after an event that luke doesn't even

mention

the abomination of desolation

and it has a destruction of jerusalem it

has a specific label given to it by

jesus christ the great tribulation

so suddenly we begin to realize that in

this discussion

luke seems to have focused on the fall

of jerusalem and he there's two

different desolations he's focused on

the fall of jerusalem in 70 a.d clearly

and that's what causes so many scholars

who presume that they're just crunched

together as one account

they're saying well gee that what what

what the

what the bible talks about happened back

in 780

that did the other hasn't happened yet

you understand the difference

if you if this is an example

of where i believe precision

is valuable because there are all kinds

of good scholars stumbling

over this issue by not recognizing that

luke's talking some of the things

looking to talk about is before those

signs and what matthew's talking about

is after those signs and the reason i

bring this up here

is that by the way see matthew is jewish

and he's talking

he's focusing on the time of jacob's

trouble

after these signs you've got the

abomination then let them wish to be in

judea flee in the mountains and so forth

at the fall of jerusalem

under luke

it was very similar again jerusalem was

surrounded by armies

but there was an unexplained relaxation

of the siege

and the christians in jerusalem were

able to slip out

that's well documented in josephus

elsewhere

and then it was reestablished of course

they they had over a million 100 000

people slaughtered in those nine months

that's all we have eyewitness accounts

you can check that out but the point is

that is not the same event as occurs

after the abomination of desolation

which comes after the same list of signs

you're with me so far so check it out

and i think it'll clear

a lot of of misunderstandings that are

going on but the other thing reason

bringing in the 7 churches

are focusing on a period of time after

the fall of jerusalem but before the war

the

before

revelation chapter 6 verse 1.

so i thought that would be useful at

this point because you're going to want

to understand that before we jump into

smyrna to see where they fit in

so read chapters two and three for next

time

outline the letter to smyrna which is

you know

eight and it's only four versus four or

five verses long it's not very long

and then if you get time you want to

study the solid discourse thing because

you'll find this sort of an uh uh

an undercurrent and all the rest

matthew 24 luke 21 and also daniel 9 are

really essential background

aspects to a serious study the book of

revelation

and so with that let's stand for closing

word of prayer

let's borrow hearts father

father we do thank you for your word

we thank you that word

became dw flesh and dwelt among us

father we also

ask you

to help us

to keep the great commandment help us to

love you

with all our heart

soul strength and mind

help us father

to put you ahead of everything else

as we look at our

national

horizon

as we look at our personal horizon

he

overwhelmed

as we realize how far we've fallen

as we just begin to get a glimpse of the

extremes that you've gone to

that we might have life

and life eternal

oh father how that should eclipse

everything else

on our list of priorities

as we recognize father the clouds on the

horizon that are coming

we do pray father that you would

illuminate for each of us

what you would have of each of us

in the days that remain

not only that we might grow and grace

the knowledge of lord and savior but

that we might be more fruitful stewards

of the opportunities that you put before

us

oh father

that we

might just love you more

we just commit

ourselves this night

without any reservations whatsoever

into your hands

to do with us as you will

as we commit ourselves into your hands

in the name of yeshua

our lord and savior jesus christ

[Music]

you